El Niño 2015
Jordan Haley & Blake Watson
El Niño:
an irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December.
The map above highlights areas of the U.S. that experience temperature or precipitation conditions that may be different from normal when an El Niño is present. Impacts from El Niño are most noticeable during the late fall through early spring months. During late spring and summer, climate patterns may not be affected at all.
Effects of El Niño in the united states:
- -Storms, flooding, and landslides in Southern California
-Crop damage in California
-Heavy precipitation cause flooding and damage in Gulf states
-Reduction in crops the following summer such as corn, soybeans, sorghum, and tobacco.
-Lower heating bills in the northern US
Expectations for El Niño 2016:
NOAA expects winter to trend wetter than average over much of the southern tier of the nation, from California into the Desert Southwest and into the southern and central Plains, as well as into much of the Deep South and Gulf Coast. The East Coast, from the Southeast into portions of the Mid-Atlantic and into southern New England, may also see a wetter than average winter. A drier-than-average winter is expected over parts of the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies and into the far northern Plains and parts of the Great Lakes and Midwest.
Results:
The southern tier of the nation is likely to be colder than average, particularly in Texas and the Gulf Coast states. Meanwhile, a large swath of the western and northern United States from California into the Pacific Northwest eastward into the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast is expected to be warmer than average.
La niña:
a cooling of the water in the equatorial Pacific that occurs at irregular intervals and is associated with widespread changes in weather patterns complementary to those of El Niño, but less extensive and damaging in their effects.